


One Ring to Ruin It All (Not On Henry's Watch)

by Terapsina



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Fix-It, Getting Together, Henry Mills Being a Good Son, Henry Mills Ships Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, Meddling Kids, NO ENGAGEMENT, One Shot, POV Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Protective Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Season/Series 06, Semi-Canonical Season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:53:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27147625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terapsina/pseuds/Terapsina
Summary: "What is it you've got there, Henry?" Emma asked as she walked into the living room."Nothing!" Henry yelped and in a split second decision stuffed the ring into his own pocket instead of back in Hook's coat./or/Henry finds the ring and proceeds to save his mothers from themselves.
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills & Henry Mills, Evil Queen | Regina Mills & Henry Mills & Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan
Comments: 28
Kudos: 211





	One Ring to Ruin It All (Not On Henry's Watch)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is an early birthday present to myself (early by a few hours, so close enough I think).
> 
> I've had the first part of it in my drafts for MONTHS but today I actually went and finished it and hopefully it came out okay.
> 
> Anyway, the setting of this fic is a vague mostly canon season six (except Robin Hood isn't dead, because I'm giving Regina a break, let her have a normal ex she's broken up with because she didn't actually love him instead of... the usual stuff (this isn't actually relevant to this fic, there's literally one line that might have been confusing if I hadn't mentioned it)). But I never actually reached season six so if stuff doesn't add up just pretend it's some very similar future setting that's canon up to after Emma stopped being the Dark One.
> 
> But yeah I'm still fixing the engagement. By making Henry be all of us.

Henry’s moms... were stupid.

Now, don't get him wrong, they were both really smart and intelligent and over the years had proven it by coming out on top whenever a new fairytale threat showed up. But about each other? they were complete morons. And he'd watched them be so for years now.

See the thing was, that though they’d started out on a bit of a wrong foot - as can happen when one person was the Evil Queen and the other the Savior fated to defeat them - by now they were so completely in love with each other that it was a bit nauseating. Especially for Henry, their teenage son, who had been in the front row seat to more than a few gooey eyes and the sort of stares that had made him want to close his eyes, stuff fingers in his ears and sing loudly until they were done.

He'd watched his mom eyeing Hook like she'd like to skin him alive, - which Henry knew for a fact wasn't just to do with how little she liked the pirate in the first place, because the stare always cooled off in proportion to how far apart he was from Emma at any given point. Though admittedly it had never dropped below a 'would like to drop another crocodile on him' point on the scale.

He'd watched _Emma_ look like Mom had a made her swallow a toad any time she'd been forced to share air with Robin Hood back when that was still a thing.

He'd also watched them sacrifice their own 'happiness' for the other so many times by now, it had become clear to anyone with eyes that the only happiness they needed was for the other to have it.

And he'd watched them do absolutely _nothing_ about _any_ of it the _entire time_.

And now, in this moment, as Henry was helplessly staring at the sparkly engagement ring he’d found in the pocket of Hook's coat, after it had fallen out as he went to move it away from his spot on the couch, he realized that the time his moms had to finally figure their stuff out and admit to each other what Henry had known for forever, was about to run out.

The morning hadn’t been off to a great start anyway. He’d been listening to Emma and Hook fight for almost an hour from within his room in Emma’s apartment. The fight had seemed to encapsulate everything from how much time Emma spent on her job as the Sheriff, to how little of it she spent with Hook, and somehow he'd still heard his mom get brought up at least three times, though never by name. The fight had eventually ended with Hook storming out of the apartment, apparently still too angry to remember his coat.

"What is it you've got there, Henry?" Emma asked as she walked into the living room.

"Nothing!" Henry yelped and in a split second decision stuffed the ring into his own pocket instead of back in Hook's coat.

Emma eyed him like she hadn't been fooled at all but didn't pry. Being a teenager had its advantages. She probably thought he was hiding something along the lines of a gift for the girl she knew he liked at school.

There was a momentary spark of guilt at her trusting that he wouldn't hide anything bad - or that he wouldn’t be rifling through her boyfriend's pockets - but that was immediately overshadowed by the need to keep that ring as far away from his second mother as humanly possible. And from the pirate too - err...

Alright so he might have picked that habit up from his mom, in his defense he didn't put any adjectives in front of the noun, not 'dirty’ pirate, or ‘selfish’ pirate or on one very memorable occasion _‘pirata bastardo’_. 

In his _mother's_ defense, she hadn't known he would hear it, it had been a few months back after they’d went home from the weekly family dinner with Emma, Snow and Charming. Hook had been invited for the first time to join them as Emma’s boyfriend and his mom had spent the entire dinner looking... well, Henry never wanted to see his mom make that sucker punched face ever again. She had hidden it in a fraction of a moment and he’s pretty sure he was the only one who’d seen but they hadn’t even stayed for dessert, she’d excused them with a headache and fled as soon as she could. It was the first time in ages where the family dinner didn’t end with Emma walking them home and then staying for a drink as Henry went off to sleep. 

That night, after Henry had gone to bed, his mom had locked herself in the bathroom, which he only knew about because he’d heard the mirror break from his room and had gone to investigate.

He’d heard her then, cursing Hook’s name and... and crying. It had been like getting splashed with freezing water.

He’d known then. In a way that he hadn’t really known before even though he’d thought that he had, that his mom _loved_ Emma.

Remembering it now reminded him that he couldn’t afford to be squeamish about technically having stolen something a lot bigger than the common teenage petty theft examples of a pack of gum or a bag of chips - something which to be absolutely clear he’d never done before, because his mom would absolutely have grounded him for a length of time that would mean his friends would probably forget what he looked like by the time he’d gotten free. He wasn’t suicidal. 

And anyway, he’d give the ring back. After he’d made absolutely sure that Emma’s answer was going to be no.

He refused to live in a world where he had to watch his mom’s face when she was informed that Emma was getting married and pretended to be happy. Or for that matter in a world where Emma kept pretending to be happy with Hook, and not even doing that good of a job at it.

He hadn't missed how grey and pale she'd been turning lately, from her wardrobe to the look in her eyes.

He also hadn’t once yet seen Emma looking at Hook the way she did at his mom any time they were in the same room. Like she was the most beautiful thing in Emma’s world and she would fight dragons and leap through realms and enslave her soul to evil daggers as many times as she had to in order to ensure her safety. In those moments and around Henry were almost the only times he saw a spark of the old Emma surface.

Like he’d said. Stupid.

With any luck Hook would just think the ring fell out of his pocket somewhere in town. And while Hook was busy looking for it Henry would have bought himself some time to figure out how exactly he was gonna get his mothers to come to their senses and admit their feelings.

\---

The problem with that was that nothing he could come up with was guaranteed to work. At least not with the timetable he had.

And his timetable sucked. Because now that he’d had a chance to think past that first panicked move of hiding the engagement ring, he’d realized that he likely didn’t have long at all before Hook might give up on the ring and just ask Emma without it.

He might very well only have days.

That wasn’t enough time to plan an operation and recruit allies that lacked enough scruples to not tell on him to his mothers or grandparents. Or to place his moms in severe enough parent trap situations to overcome three years of pining.

Henry knew he could try anyway of course. Talk Ruby into feeding them a truth potion during lunch at Granny’s, maybe? Or getting Mr. Gold to give him a truth potion in the first place by pulling the grandson card? Trap them in an elevator somehow? Maybe get Aunt Zelena to talk his mom into a date with someone and make Emma find out about it? 

But the chances for failure were too big and the consequences of that failure were Emma walking down the aisle and his mom forced to sit in the front row seat and smile that fragile, crystal thin smile that made something sting in Henry’s chest.

No, the only move he had, the only one with any real chance for success he could see, was the Hail Mary of moves.

“Mom?” Henry asked uncertainly the evening of the same day he’d found the ring.

“Yes, honey?” his mom sent him a distracted but warm smile over her shoulder while pulling out the lasagna from the oven. She looked as happy as she ever did when they had a free evening together where she didn't have to worry about the latest threat to the town and he almost chickened out, not that keen to ruin her good mood. But no, he had to.

He drew in a deep breath to steady his nerves and made himself breech the subject by going straight to the point.

“You have to tell Emma you love her,” he threw out in one breath, his heart hammering against his ribcage.

The baking dish almost fell out of his mom's hands before she placed it heavily on the table, straight on top of the marble surface, just a quick look at her face made him bite back a flinch. She didn’t just look startled, she looked like he’d pulled the rug out from under her. But as it had during that dinner months ago it only lasted a moment.

“Henry?” she asked and crossed her arms protectively in front of her even as her eyebrows smoothed out into vague confusion.

He exhaled in frustration.

“I know you love her. And you have to tell her or- or- you just have to tell her, Mom. It’s important.” He knew he was pleading now but the happiness of both his mothers rested on this conversation and he needed to find a way to convince her that she had to finally _do_ something about it.

“Of course I care about Emma, Henry, I don’t see how that-”

“No,” he interrupted her, he wouldn’t let her avoid the conversation like that, by lying to him about it, it hit too close to home still. Reminded Henry too much of when he’d first brought Emma to Storybrooke, when his mom had been lying constantly about everything, trying to keep him from the truth to keep the curse in place. They had moved past that years ago, Henry had forgiven his mom a long time ago. But he wouldn’t let her do it again, and especially not about this. “I know you love her, Mom. _Really_ love her. And you need to tell her because- because you don’t have time to wait anymore.”

And then he pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out the little silver ring with a diamond centerpiece. It would actually be kind of pretty if its sight didn’t pull his insides into a knot.

“What-”

“I found it in Hook’s coat,” Henry said and then watched in sudden fright as his mom stumbled momentarily before grabbing the countertop in a steely grip to steady herself.

Her face cracked and the look that rushed through that space in her mask was exactly what he’d been afraid he’d have to see. She looked like that ring had driven a spike through her chest and made all traces of the happiness and contentment she’d found in the past few years bleed out of her in one great rush of air.

“He’s going to ask her...” his mom said in a coarse whisper and trailed off into silence. He didn’t think she was talking to him anymore though, he wasn’t even sure if she saw him anymore.

Carefully, as if approaching a wounded animal, he stepped up to his mom to hug her.

It took a moment but a few seconds later he felt her hand run over his hair the same way it had a million times before. Like she used to every night when he was smaller as she tucked him into bed, usually right after she'd read something to him from his most recent favorite book and before she would get up to turn off his night light and leave him to his dreams.

“Tell her you love her, Mom,” he hiccupped into her shoulder while fighting back the tears that were trying to escape his clenched eyes. “You know she won’t marry him if you tell her. So, tell her.”

“Oh, Henry,” she said sadly still holding him until he started to pull back and she let him go with one more pass of fingers over his head, like he was nine again and had woken from a nightmare. “I need to give Emma back her- her ring.”

Then again if this didn’t qualify as a nightmare he didn’t know what did.

Reluctantly he handed it over and watched his mom as she composed herself by running her hands over her eyes to hide the evidence of her own tears and then after taking a deep, shuddering inhale of air left the manor to go see Emma.

Now everything really was out of his hands. All that was left for him to do, was hope.

\---

Somewhere between when his mom left and before she came back he’d moved to the living room and fallen asleep on the couch.

He was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of the front doors opening and closing. It wasn’t a noise that could be considered loud by any stretch of the imagination but he still felt himself get jerked awake by it. Maybe because he’d been waiting for it for hours.

“Mom?” he asked and rushed to meet her, all fear and hopefulness.

He halted mid-step when he saw her.

Her eyes were red and her face puffy from tears. And she looked like someone had taken her heart and shredded it, the last time he'd seen her like this was when she told him that Emma had saved her and become the Dark One in her place.

Only no, this was worse, there was still fight in his mom's eyes back then. He'd known that they'd find a way to get their Emma back, that his mom would never stop until she'd done it.

Here and now her eyes lacked that force of will.

“Mom-”

“Go to sleep, Henry. We can talk in the morning.”

“But-”

“Please, Henry. In the morning.” Her voice broke on the last word and Henry found himself doing as she asked. Reluctantly turning around he moved for the staircase and then rushed upstairs to his room.

But he didn’t sleep for a long time. Just lay in bed, straining to hear for any sounds coming from his mom’s room. He couldn’t hear anything but found that it didn’t really make him feel any better. He knew what he'd be able to hear if the walls of his home weren't so thick.

\---

In the morning he felt like he’d gotten run over by a bus. His head hurt and his eyes itched and he wanted to jump out of his own skin but he didn’t try to go wake up his mom even when he went downstairs and found her still absent. He wanted to know what had happened but he also didn’t want to make her tell him. He didn’t want his mom to hurt any more than she already did.

And then the doorbell rang and he found himself by the front door in seconds. He knew who was on the other side of the door, he didn’t even need to check.

He just didn’t know why she had come.

“Hey, Henry,” Emma said when he had opened the door, her face pulled into a fragile smile.

“What do you want?” He asked, staying protectively in his place in the middle of the doorway.

“Is Her Majesty awake?” she joked almost timidly like she wanted him to smile like he usually would at that.

He didn't.

“No,” he said and fell quiet. He wasn’t going to make this easy for her.

“Can I come in?” she asked with a sort of carefulness that wasn’t really in her nature, not even lately when it was sometimes harder to see Emma past the shell she wore. “I need to tell her something.”

“You told her something yesterday,” he said, sharp and more than a little pointed.

“I know,” Emma said again, shamefaced and with pain coming off her in waves, she looked at Henry with a wounded and pleading expression, “I need to tell her something else.”

He felt himself start to give in, he didn't like to see Emma in pain any more than he enjoyed seeing his mom like that. But he knew who had hurt his mom yesterday, and how badly for her to have been unable to hide it from Henry. The resolve strengthened.

“Where’s Hook’s ring?” He was almost shocked of his own nerve but he didn’t want to let Emma in just so that she could make it worse. So he needed all the information he could get.

“I gave it back,” Emma said and Henry’s thoughts came to a halt as his eyes finally jumped to the sight of her naked ring finger. And then took in the bright red leather jacket he hadn't seen her wear in months.

“You said no.” He realized as a relieved smile began to spread on his face.

“I said no,” Emma said her own smile weakly trying to bloom on her face but falling again a moment later like it couldn’t quite land there while another conversation was still in her future.

He almost stepped back to let her in but caution won out, he needed to be _sure_ this time.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I’m in love with your mom,” spilled out of Emma like a confession that had been hidden inside for an eternity, like letting it loose was a dam breaking.

That was all he'd needed to hear.

He grabbed Emma’s hand and pulled her in after him as he started to drag her across the hallway and toward the staircase.

“Now was that really so hard?” he said rolling his eyes in exaggeration and grinning like all his birthdays had come at once.

**Author's Note:**

> Well hopefully you enjoyed that. I haven't written anything for this ship in AGES so I'm not sure how good of a grasp I still have on the characters. But I think I did okay?
> 
> Well at least I made myself feel great by making sure that Regina never has to witness Emma's wedding to someone else in my version of events.
> 
> Hope it was as healing for some of you as it was for me. Please let me know what you thought, it would make my day :)


End file.
